Press Release
For Immediate Release: Monday, January 23, 2006
Contact: Stephanie Parent, PEAC (503) 768-6736; Mark
Riskedahl, NEDC (503) 750-5533;
Chas Offutt, PEER (202) 265-7337; Liz
Hamilton, NSIA (503) 631-8859
Legal
Action to Save Fish Passage Center
Effort to Keep Fish Experts on Job,
Despite Maneuver to Zero-Out Budget
Portland, OR — Environmental and sport-fishing industry
groups today filed a legal action to keep intact the Fish
Passage Center. The Center’s experts provide analysis of
fish runs and river operations to protect and enhance
salmon, steelhead, bull trout and other fish moving through
the Columbia and lower Snake rivers. The Fish Passage
Center plays a critical role in monitoring whether native
fish stocks are able to traverse a series of dams to reach
their spawning grounds.
Late last year, Senator Larry Craig (R-ID) added language to
a Congressional Committee report that the Fish Passage
Center should no longer receive funding from the Bonneville
Power Administration and the functions should be transferred
to a private entity. The Center’s figures were relied upon
by a federal district court judge in ordering greater water
releases from dams this past summer to aid salmon migration.
On December 8, 2005, the Bonnevile Power Administration (BPA)
issued a solicitation for another entity to perform “Key
Functions previously performed by the Fish Passage Center.”
BPA is slated to make an announcement as soon as Thursday
about its intentions to implement the report language that
Craig slipped into its annual appropriations bill.
The legal petition, filed by Northwest Environmental Defense
Center (NEDC), Public Employees for Environmental
Responsibility (PEER) and the Northwest Sportfishing
Industry Association (NSIA), asks the Ninth Circuit Court of
Appeals to declare attempts by the BPA to replace the Fish
Passage Center illegal, in violation of the provisions of
the Northwest Power Act. Moreover, the groups argue that a
Committee report does not carry the force of law.
“BPA is ignoring the program adopted to protect fish and
mitigate impacts from hydropower operations,” stated
Stephanie Parent of the Pacific Advocacy Center who filed
the petition. “BPA cannot act unilaterally under the
Northwest Power Act; it must involve the public and
stakeholders.”
While Craig has complained the Center engages in “advocacy
science,” the Center’s reports are mathematical compilations
of fish passage data. The Center’s work is posted on its
web site and available to all. “Senator Craig doesn’t like
the message inherent in the data reported by the Center, so
he is trying to zero out the messenger ,” stated PEER
Executive Director Jeff Ruch. “This type of political
intrusion has a chilling effect on every expert employed by
the federal government who honestly reports findings on any
issue with potential political controversy.”
“Sportfishing businesses and the many clients we serve rely
heavily on the Center’s information,” said Liz Hamilton of
NSIA. “BPA’s action will disrupt data collection and
threaten the quality and consistency of the information
available.”
“NEDC has worked for over thirty-five years to protect
habitat for threatened and endangered fish stocks in the
Columbia Basin, said Mark Riskedahl of NEDC. “We need to
see the Fish Passage Center’s work to continue.
###
Read the 9th Circuit petition
Find out more about the Fish Passage Center
http://www.fpc.org/about_fpc.html
|
|
Bush Adviser,
Agencies, Other Groups to Hear Salmon Remedies at Portland
Conference
January 20, 2006
By Mark Floyd, 541-737-0788
CORVALLIS, Ore. - A diverse group of fisheries scientists,
policy analysts and salmon advocates will present their
prescriptions for saving wild salmon in the Northwest during
a Jan. 25 conference in Portland - and then get the public
reaction from leaders of state and federal agencies,
non-governmental groups, and Native American tribes.
Also speaking at "The Future of Wild Pacific Salmon
Conference" will be James L. Connaughton, who chairs the
White House Council on Environmental Quality and serves as
the senior environmental and natural resources adviser to
President Bush.
The conference, which runs from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the
DoubleTree Hotel Lloyd Center, is open to the public with
pre-registration but is likely to sell out, conference
organizers say.
"In a nutshell, what this conference is about is taking some
of the prescriptions that came out of the Salmon 2100
Project and presenting them to some of the people down in
the trenches to see if they would fly," said Denise Lach, an
associate professor of sociology at Oregon State University
and one of the conference coordinators. "It is a manner of
ground-truthing."
William Ruckelshaus, who served as the first head of the
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in 1970, will speak at
noon. He also served as acting director of the FBI, and was
Deputy Attorney General of the United States.
The Salmon 2100 Project was organized by the Center for
Water and Environmental Sustainability at Oregon State and
the EPA Research Laboratory on the OSU campus in Corvallis.
The project sought realistic ideas for saving wild salmon,
given social, fiscal and environmental realities.
Although prescriptive suggestions came from 33 salmon
scientists, analysts and advocates, only a handful will
present their ideas at the Portland conference. A book
containing all of the prescriptions will be published later
this spring.
"The ideas tend to be clustered in four different areas,"
Lach said. "One group believes the answer to saving wild
salmon comes in the form of habitat protection; another sees
institutional reform as the key. Some believe the science
and technology in the answer, while others argue that we
must change people's values.
"The most encouraging thing is that no one is saying that
saving wild salmon is impossible," Lach added. "But there
was agreement that current policies and practices need to be
reviewed - and changed."
The five policy prescriptions that will be presented include
·
"A Proactive Sanctuary Strategy to Anchor and
Restore High-Priority Wild Salmon Ecosystems," by Guido Rahr
III, president and CEO of The Wild Salmon Center, and Xan
Augerot, director of science programs at the center;
·
"Follow the Money," by Larry Bailey, an author
and farmer from Tonasket, Wash., involved in local salmon
recovery efforts; and Michelle Boshard, a trained
facilitator who has coordinated numerous watershed
initiatives;
·
"Lifestyles and Ethical Values to Sustain Wild
Salmon and Ourselves," by Jack Williams, chief scientist for
Trout Unlimited; and Phil Pister, who spent 38 years as a
biologist for the California Department of Fish and Game;
·
"Engineering the Future for Wild Pacific
Salmon and Steelhead," by Ernest "Ernie" Brannon, who spent
20 years as chief research biologist for the International
Pacific Salmon Fisheries Commission;
·
"Climate and Development: Salmon
Caught in the Squeeze," by Jim Martin, who recently
retired after 30 years with the Oregon Department of Fish
and Wildlife, and spent six years as chief of fisheries, and
three years as salmon adviser to then-Oregon Gov. John
Kitzhaber.
Among the people who have accepted invitations to
respond to the prescriptions are Steve Wright, administrator
of the Bonneville Power Administration; Mike Carrier, the
Governor's Natural Resources Policy Director in Oregon;
Billy Frank Jr., chairman of the Northwest Indian Fisheries
Commission; Jeff Koenings, director of the Washington
Department of Fish and Wildlife; Liz Hamilton, executive
director of the Northwest Sportfishing Industry Association;
and Steve Appel, president of the
Washington State Farm Bureau.
Robert T. Lackey, a senior fisheries biologist at EPA and a
courtesy professor in the OSU Department of Fisheries and
Wildlife, will open the conference by talking about the
future of wild salmon in the Northwest, and the ideas behind
the Salmon 2100 Project. Lackey and OSU sociologists Lach
and Sally Duncan coordinated the project and the Portland
conference.
More information on the conference, including the agenda and
background information on the speakers, is available at:
http://outreach.forestry.oregonstate.edu/Salmon2100/conference.htm.
About Oregon State University: OSU is one of only two U.S.
universities designated a land grant, sea grant, space grant
and sun grant institution. Its more than 19,000 students
come from all 50 states and more than 80 countries. OSU
programs touch every county within Oregon, and its faculty
teach and conduct research on issues of national and global
importance.
Sources:
Denise Lach, 541-737-5471
Bob Lackey, 541-754-4607
Sally Duncan, 541-737-4862
|
